COLLECTION 2 - AVANT-GARDE

KALTBLUT
Remedios Varo Uranga was born
in a small town in Spain, in 1908.
From an early age she began copying
blueprints, which helped her
develop her talent as a painter. At
8 she moved to Madrid with her
family, a city that provided lots of
stimuli and education for Remedios.
During her early years she
developed a keen interest for the
works of Edgar Allan Poe as well
as other occult, philosophical and
mystic readings that had a major
impact on her work. Her formal education,
catholic and strict, stirred
the rebellious and bohemian spirit
in her, as well as her later questioning
of religion, and proved actually
vital to her development as a
personality as well as an
artist.
In 1930 she graduated from the San Fernando Fine
Arts Academy in Madrid, the alma mater of Salvador
Dali (*1) and other renowned surrealists.
It was however in Paris that Remedios Varo came to
shine. Amongst other important surrealists, she came
to fully comprehend the movement of the Avant-Garde
and to perfect her skills in painting. Numerous exhibitions
followed and she became a member of the most
exquisite vangardist artists’ circles. Always interested
in games, the abolishment of logic and the metaphysics,
after cadavres exquis she was now taking part in
Jeu de dessin communiqué.
Her happiness in Paris didn’t last long; she had to flee
due to the Nazi Germany invasion of Paris. Back in Spain,
she had to flee once more, this time to Mexico, which
was to remain her home for the rest of her life, even if
it only seemed temporary to her. In Mexico and together
with some of her fellow exiles and closest friends her
imagination found the outlet she had always hoped for.
*1 www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dali
75